ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 403 



water the ear of the seal is closed by the external pressure, and opened 

 by muscular action in air. When the whale remained always in the 

 water, and its body had undergone such transformation that in the 

 usual position of repose on the surface its external ear lay below the 

 water line, the necessity for opening the ear to receive sound waves 

 through the air ceased, with the result that the ear muscles have become 

 rudimentary. In the toothed whales there occurred a twisting and 

 elongation of the anterior sphenoid, with the result that the external 

 nasal opening lies on the upper surface of the forehead. Through this 

 modification of the fore-part of the skull the eustachian tube has been 

 shifted towards the roof, and the tubo-palatal muscles have disappeared. 

 Other modifications have also taken place here, with the result that, 

 except when the act of swallowing takes place, the tube is closed, but 

 ■the conduction of sound is not impeded. These and other peculiarities 

 are all referable to the alteration in structure of the whole skull adapted 

 to secure the possibility of breathing in the horizontal position of 

 repose at the surface of the water. 



Photographs of Living Finback Whales from Newfoundland.* — 

 F. W. True publishes the first photographs of living whales in American 

 waters. They all represent the common finback, Balcmoptera phy solus 

 (L.). Under ordinary circumstances the finback rises and sounds 

 obliquely, the flukes are not thrown out, and the spout is vertical. The 

 actions of the animal as regards the length of time it remains below 

 •the surface, the distance it travels while submerged, and the number of 

 times it spouts in succession, are irregular. The spout is shown to be 

 single in the finbacks, for the two columns of vapour-laden breath unite 

 ■so close to the head that they appear as one. 



Affinities of the Pygopodes.t — R. W. Shufeldt gives a detailed 

 statement of the affinities between the grebes (super-family Podici- 

 poidea) and the loons (super-family Urinatoroidea). He adheres to the 

 •conclusion which he maintained in 1884, that our existing grebes and 

 loons are derived from, or are the descendants of the great toothed 

 ■divers (Hesperornithidas) long since extinct. The grebe-stock was an 

 earlier offshoot than the loon-stock from the great toothed diver stock. 



Comparative Osteology and Phylogeny of the Columbiformes.f — 

 Rudolf Martin makes an important contribution to the taxonomy of 

 the pigeon-like birds. He gives a comparative account of the skeletal 

 structure of pigeons, noting the main lines of evolution and the 

 secondary changes. He pays particular attention to Didunculus strigi- 

 rostris. The order Columbiformes includes two sub-orders : Didi, with 

 the families Dididas and Pezophabidas ; and Columbaa, with the families 

 €olumbidae, Peristeridas, Treronidas, Carpophagidse, and Didunculidre. 



;j Reclassification of the Reptilia.§ — H. F. Osborn, as the result of 

 a searching study of the problem of the diphyletic origin of the reptiles, 



* Smithsonian Miscell. Collections, xlv. (1903) pp. 91-4 (3 pis.). 

 t Amer. Naturalist, xxxviii. (1904) pp. 13-49 (1 pi.). 



Zool. Jahrb., xx. (1904) pp. 167-352 (2 pis. and 9G figs.). 

 § Amer. Naturalist, xxxviii. (1904) pp. 93-115. 



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